by Ashlee Sinn
Nadya. “Where’s Nadya?” I asked as Viktor helped hold me up.
“She’s already outside,” Bo answered quickly. “Come on. Move!”
Viktor pushed me ahead, placing me firmly between him and Bo. That might have normally irked me, but there was no time to debate male chauvinistic behavior right now. After all, I was the one who’d just fallen through the ceiling.
We reached the metal stairs and I welcomed their holes that allowed me to look at the floor below us. That was our safety underneath and we needed to get there now.
The walls of the warehouse crumbled to the ground, sending more plumes of dust filled with drywall and probably asbestos into our escape route. Bo reached behind him to grab my hand and I did the same for Viktor. We were so close now, it would be ridiculous to lose each other.
Bo leapt over a fallen beam and I followed. He dodged around debris, pushing several large pieces out of the way, until we finally saw the exit. So close now.
The moonlight seemed brighter than before as we stumbled into the parking lot. We all coughed and dropped to our knees, trying to catch our breath—not so much from the run but from the amount of particles we’d inhaled in the past ten minutes. For too long, I coughed harder than anyone else. It was like I couldn’t get enough breath in before my chest tried to expel more bad air. My throat tightened in panic, aching with the injured muscles I’d endured from my fall and hating that I couldn’t breathe.
A warm pair of arms wrapped around me and Viktor whispered into my ear. “Slow breaths, Sophia. Try to slow your breaths.”
I listened and I tried. Viktor sucked in air with me, encouraging me to follow his rhythm. It helped, and within a minute, the panic subsided. His hot breath danced across my bite, sending a sensation I shouldn’t be feeling right now straight into my core. That warmth helped me recover faster than I would have expected as I wanted to do more than just feel Viktor’s arms around me.
“Viktor, look.” Bo’s voice broke my trance and I allowed Viktor to pull me up to my feet. “Something’s not right.”
I noticed it too. The silence and the lack of anyone else in the parking lot. The warehouse was still falling apart behind us, but nothing else appeared to be touched by the shaking of the earth.
“I don’t understand,” I whispered.
Something growled in the distance and Bo jerked to attention. “Brandt?”
“Was that him?” Viktor asked.
“I don’t know, but I—”
Bo’s words were cut off when a bullet sliced through his shoulder. He yelled out in pain and immediately dropped to the ground. By the time he finished the roll, he’d completely transformed into a bear. No, not just any bear. A grizzly. And he was amazing.
He stood on his hind legs and roared like nothing I’d ever seen before. Another gunshot rang out in the night and hit Bo in the other shoulder. But it didn’t deter him. He spun in the direction of the shot and took off at a run so fast I made a note to never try and outrun a bear.
I was still staring in disbelief when Viktor pushed me to the ground. He fell on top of me so hard, I smacked my chin into the pavement and bit my tongue. Something exploded behind us.
“What was that?” I screamed.
Viktor didn’t move off of me. “A fucking witch,” he growled.
A witch? That was magic?
Another burst of energy blasted behind us, but close enough to send shards of pavement raining down over our backs. “God damn him,” Viktor said. I’d never heard him curse so much.
He jumped to his feet and pulled my underneath his arm. “We need to go,” he said yet again.
I couldn’t agree more.
But as soon as we took two steps forward, my instincts flared into action. The hair on my arms stood on edge. The butterflies in my gut prepared me to fight instead of run. And the bite on my neck sent a wave of heat pulsating throughout my blood.
We were surrounded by vampires.
More gravel pelted us when another energy ball, or whatever that witch had, hit where we’d been laying just a few seconds ago. “Where is everyone else?” I screamed.
“I don’t know,” Viktor said, head scanning our surroundings. “But we need to focus on us right now. Can you fight?” I nodded. “Good.” He grabbed a piece of metal siding that had either fallen away from the warehouse or had been thrown at us. In a few swift movements, he’d ripped it apart and reshaped it into two stakes. “It’s the best I can do right now.”
I gave his arm a quick squeeze and took my weapon. “It will do.”
A gray dog, no wolf, dashed across the lot in front of us, teeth bared and snarling in warning. I thought I was seeing things until I heard a bear growl from somewhere behind us. Fighting with shifters was something I would need to get used to, but they certainly were welcomed by my side any time.
“Get ready. They’re coming.”
I followed Viktor’s gaze into the darkness, waiting for the shadows to move. In fact, I was so focused on what I expected to emerge, that I never even heard them behind us. A sharp pain plowed into my side at the same time Viktor shot forward to protect our front. I found myself on the ground again, not sure exactly what had happened, but knowing that I didn’t like the way my left leg was already going numb.
A large ball of fur jumped over my head and hit the vampire behind me. I assumed that one of the shifters had just saved my life, and I scrambled to my feet to be a better fighter. The sound of punching and death filled the night air around me but I still couldn’t see. I reached around and touched my lower back only to find that my hand was covered with blood when I pulled it away. That wasn’t good.
A vampire hissed and darted out of the shadows. I swung my right arm up and ducked, forcing the metal stake into his chest when he tried to land on top of me. Flipping him backward, I rolled to the side and them immediately jumped forward again to pull the stake free and slam it back into his chest. I had to make sure I’d hit the right spot.
As he disintegrated in front of me, three more vampires with dark, soulless eyes attacked at the same time. I spun around with my arm out, trying to cut them all in one slice. It didn’t work, but it did keep them at arm’s length long enough for me to come up with a plan. I pulled the closest vampire, a young girl, toward me and whipped her around so that I held her in front of my chest like a hostage. The move sent a spasm of agony through my back, but I just squeezed her tighter to try and counteract the pain.
One of the vampires lunged at me at the same time, and clawed the girl’s face instead of mine. I pushed her into him and they both fell to the ground. But just as I was about to slam the metal through them, the third vampire jumped onto my back and wrapped his bony arms around my throat.
He must have been a kid. Not even old enough for puberty since he hardly weighed more than a hundred pounds. But still, he squeezed the throat muscles that already hurt and my chest one again screamed for air. I bent forward, trying to knock him free. But the little bastard held on tight. He had no intention of letting me live.
Arabella unexpectedly appeared in front of me. Once again her long, blonde hair had been professionally straightened and she wore high heeled boots with her all-black outfit. She winked at me a second before slamming her sharp heel into the chests of the two vampires I’d knocked to the ground. The squishing sound of her stiletto puncturing through skin and bones was a welcomed noise but scared me none the less. This was one demon not to be messed with.
A moment later, she disappeared and reappeared behind me. I didn’t see her, but I felt her pull the vampire from my back and blink out of existence with him in tow. I coughed, once again fighting for air, but then screamed when the vampire’s body fell from the sky and landed in the dust of his friends. His body cracked and the ground shuddered. Arabella must have dropped him from an incredible height for his form to implode like that. But those injuries wouldn’t kill him, so I scrambled forward and shoved the stake into his liquid chest.
“Sophia!”
I turned toward the voice. Silas’ voice. He didn’t sound good and I instantly tried to locate him.
“Sophia!”
Jumping to my feet, I ran along the side of the warehouse. The weeds were higher over here. Almost taking over the concrete completely and doing their best to trip me up. I jumped over a piece of the building and pushed my way through a pile of dust still oozing out an opening. Once I cleared those, I saw him.
I didn’t know why Silas called out to me, he seemed to be handling himself just fine. Before I could reach him, he’d sliced the heads off of two vampires with some kind of sword. I had no idea where he would have gotten that sword from but I definitely had weapon envy.
“Silas, look out!” I tried to warn him about the vampire approaching from the other side, but Silas had already spotted him. In one quick throw, the sword ended up in the chest of the vampire running his way. He shattered into dust before he even hit the ground.
I reached Silas’ side just as he hunched forward. “Silas! What’s wrong?” He inhaled a really shallow breath and started to fall. I caught him and helped prop him up against the building. And when I did, I saw all of the blood.
At first I thought maybe it wasn’t his, but with the way he wheezed, I knew this wasn’t good news. His shirt was soaked through all over his chest. Blood ran down his arm like a small stream and the bullet holes in the fabric helped me piece everything together.
“Silas, stay with me!” I screamed at him when he started falling to the ground again. It was hard for me to support his weight and I found myself sliding down with him. “Silas, no!” His eyes closed and his mouth gaped like a fish. He was trying to say something but he had no energy left for words.
And then Ashby was there.
“What the fuck did you do to him?” she snarled at me.
“I didn’t do this!”
She touched his face with one hand and slammed the palm of her other one into my chest. I flew backward through the air, landing a good ten feet away. My tailbone screamed at me when I hit the ground, the injury to my side not any happier. I struggled to face Silas and her again, but the second I saw them, Ashby blinked them both out of existence.
Uncontrollable tears filled my eyes and my extremities grew cold. Was I losing too much blood? Was I even sitting up?
I thought maybe I was already slipping away when someone grabbed me by the hair and yanked me back against their body. With my throat exposed and my legs not functioning, I knew I was in trouble.
“Not so fun to be the hunted, is it?”
I didn’t recognize the voice. But I did feel the cold steel of the metal blade she pressed against my throat. A vampire with a weapon? Not typical.
“I hope you burn in hell,” she snarled.
I wanted to give her a witty reply, but the knife sliced into my skin so fast, I couldn’t react. There was a very brief instance of pain where my throat had been cut, but as soon as the blood began pumping out of my arteries, all of my hurt seeped out with it.
Chapter 6
I dreamed of Silas.
I was hovering over his body watching the demon twins chant something into the air while their hands roamed across his chest. Ashby spoke the loudest in a language I didn’t know. She kept yelling at her sister, as though Arabella had been the one that tried to kill Silas.
The wolf and the bears continued to run around the edges of the parking lot. With the air still filled with dust and debris particles, their fur all looked similar in color. A ghostly gray that made me wonder if I was even seeing them at all.
Something pulled me to toward the ground. A sharp pain that ripped from my head to my toes, back and forth in waves of agony. I turned, surprised by the sudden intrusion and afraid to take my focus off Silas. Viktor kneeled on the ground, bending over a body I couldn’t see. He shook it several times, shouting out to others while he worked on it.
I started to drift closer but then I saw Bo. In bear form, he dragged a broken Nadya by the ankle and pulled her to a spot between Viktor and Silas. Running his nose up her leg, he nudged her several times. On the last hit, her body almost rolled onto its side from the force. She looked like a doll—limp limbs and a glazed over stare. Graham ran over to her, pausing only a brief moment when he saw the giant grizzly next to Nadya. He shouted at her, but I couldn’t hear the words. Grabbing her shoulders, Graham shook her several times. Bo watched, eyes glued to Nadya’s and panting with each touch Graham made. But he kept his distance, like he knew there was nothing else he could do right now.
Bo’s head snapped up at the sight of his two brothers in human form running over to Viktor. They both only wore pants, their skin covered in dust just like their fur had been. Brennan detoured to check on his brother and Brandt kept moving until he dropped down next to Viktor. His eyes widened as they moved back and forth between Viktor and the body beneath him.
The body.
That was my body.
Was I dead?
I felt another pull, only this time it didn’t take me to my body, it took me toward Silas. The twins were still trying to save him the only way they knew how. No human medicine here. Ancient magic must have been at work as I watched his body glow underneath the touch of their delicate fingers. But then Silas began to convulse and Ashby screamed up at the skies.
And the moment she did, her eyes locked with mine.
Arabella looked up, meeting my gaze as well. Ashby’s eyes had tears in them but Arabella seemed confused. Her lips moved as she spoke to Ashby, but again I couldn’t hear. Ashby shook her head and gestured toward my body lying on the ground just ten feet away. The two of them argued. Hands flying at each other and mouths screaming words I couldn’t understand.
I began floating away, lifting into the air high enough to see all of the death and destruction that had occurred tonight. So much death. How had Sebastian’s people gotten the better of us? Had this all been a trap? Were the shifters involved?
I glanced over toward Viktor and Brandt. Brandt had his hands over my throat and Viktor was looking at the wound on my back. Neither one spoke. Nadya still lay in on the broken concrete, splayed out like a crime victim. I thought I saw her foot twitch, but then she went still again. I couldn’t tell what injuries she had exactly and I suspected they were mostly internal.
“Ow!” I said to myself. Someone pulled on my leg and yanked me to the ground. A hand wrapped around my throat and I could actually feel the sensation of being dragged. “Ow!” I said again.
When my eyes focused, I was looking directly at Arabella. She’d grabbed onto my floating soul and pulled me from the sky. My body kept drifting out behind me as she marched over to Viktor and Brandt.
“I’ve got her,” she shouted.
I could hear again.
Viktor looked up and studied her outstretched arm. His eyes wrinkled in confusion. “What?”
“Her soul,” she replied. “She was trying to escape but I caught her.”
Brandt kept his hands on my throat but spoke slowly and quietly. “Do you see anything, Viktor?”
“No,” he whispered.
“You idiots can’t see her, but hear me when I tell you that I have her.” Arabella’s frustrated words pierced the night. And my throat felt uncomfortable as she continued to hold on to me. When Viktor and Brandt just sat there, she let out an exasperated sigh. “Move!” With a kick, she knocked Viktor to the side and glared at Brandt when she landed on her knees in Viktor’s place. Brandt sat back and removed his hands from my neck.
Arabella studied my body and then turned to Viktor. “Can you heal her?”
He bit his lip several times before answering. “I don’t…I don’t know.”
She shook her head and watched the blood pump from my neck. Actually, it wasn’t gushing out like it had earlier. It had slowed to a pulsating trickle now. “Well, can you turn her?”
Viktor didn’t answer which, to me, meant that he couldn’t.
Arabella looked directly at me, in
my ghostly soul form. “Do you want to live, hunter?”
Did I? The pain was all gone right now. The bite mark wasn’t inhibiting me from anything. And it was kind of nice floating around in the sky. But then I looked over at Silas, and Nadya, and lastly, Viktor. I wasn’t ready to leave them yet. I still had too much life to live.
“Yes,” I whispered.
“Good,” she said with a curt nod. “Because this is going to hurt.”
Without warning, she slammed my soul down into my body. I felt it pushed through the skin and bones, like someone trying to fit a square peg into a round hole. Arabella’s hand slipped inside of my neck like my body was no longer a barrier for her demon power. She chanted, again in a language foreign to most, over and over. The same five words repeating until she finally pulled her hand free from my body.
My soul stayed inside and the minute the two connected, I screamed out in agony. My neck burned. My back throbbed. I wanted to return to the sky where none of this existed. But then Viktor leaned over me and whispered into my ear. “Stay with me, Sophia.”
Arabella disappeared and Brandt pressed something against my neck in an attempt to stop the bleeding. “This isn’t working,” he said.
“I know,” Viktor growled. “But I can’t let her die.”
“Her body is dying.”
“I know!” Viktor screamed at the shifter and Brandt actually flinched. “I fucking know.” He bent forward again, kissing my lips ever so softly. “Sophia, please. I don’t know what to do.”
“Can you turn her?” Brandt asked.
Viktor’s mouth was still next to mine when he finally answered. “I’m not sure.”
“Well, you have to try. This body isn’t working for her right now.”
Viktor looked up at him. “It’s rarely successful this way. I need a necromancer, and a sorcerer, and a—”
“You don’t have any of that.”
Viktor slammed his lips shut and sucked in a deep breath. Brandt’s mater-of-fact take on the situation seemed to spark Viktor into action. “You’re right. And I also have nothing to lose at this point either.”